


On this Morning, Quite Distracted

by letsgogetlost



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Deaf Character, Deaf!Merlin, M/M, Record Store Day, mornings are the worst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 17:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3819007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsgogetlost/pseuds/letsgogetlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>8:30am on a Saturday is too early to be out and about without coffee, too early to be waiting in line, and too early to strike out, hard, with the cute boy waiting next to you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On this Morning, Quite Distracted

**Author's Note:**

> Record Store Day, for those not in the know, is a yearly event celebrating independent record stores. A lot of bands release limited-edition vinyl that day, and there are big sales and affiliated events - concerts, beer tastings, etc. It's good fun.
> 
> Music taste entirely my own. Sorry, jam band fans and Deadheads.
> 
> Title taken from "The Party Line," by Belle & Sebastian.
> 
> And, check out the [super wonderful cover](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3926116) made by tracionn!

8:30am was a horrible time to be up on a Saturday. Horrible. Even if you had made that choice for yourself, for some terrible reason, it was still horrible.

These were the reflections of Arthur Pendragon as he slouched down the sidewalk, blinking against the sunshine. It was going to be a beautiful day. He supposed that was some consolation. And this was his fault, anyway, this being awake early thing. What could he say? He was a slave to his passions. And a sucker for anything limited edition. Especially vinyl.

 

He was almost a block away from the record shop when he came across a few people loitering, leaning against the wall of an apartment building, waiting - he craned his neck. Looked like that was the line. Impressive. He’d heard people would be waiting, maybe even camping out, but somehow he’d expected like two of those old hippie guys you meet at record fairs, not thirty or more people, all different ages and looks.

“This the Record Store Day line?” he asked. He didn’t see any other reason to be loitering in such an orderly fashion so early, but you never could tell. Maybe they were waiting for a bus or something. The dark-haired guy in front of him didn’t even look up from his phone. “This the line?” he repeated, louder. The next person along turned around and gave him a ‘yeah.’ Cool. Time to settle in. Or he could run get a coffee, he thought - then revised that as a group of five slid into place behind him. There were some things coming out this year he really wanted. Coffee was going to have to wait.

He yawned, maybe too expansively, and leaned against the building. Minutes ticked by. The shop didn’t open until 9. The group to his left were talking among themselves, and they were jam band fans. He turned to his right, the dark-haired guy who hadn’t replied earlier. Much better option. Alone, bored-looking, and his haircut and scarf-kerchief-bandana thing seemed to say ‘decent taste in music, at very least not a Deadhead.’ And, Arthur freely admitted to himself - or really to Gwen’s teasing voice, in his head - he was cute. 

“Nice morning,” he commented. The dark-haired guy was still looking at his phone, typing furiously. Arthur pushed down the urge to peek at what he was writing. He tried another tack. “What’re you looking for today?” Nothing. Geez. He knew it was early and waiting was annoying, but the least the guy could do was make small talk. The next guy along shot Arthur a vaguely amused look. Was he being that obvious? It was way too early in the day to be striking out so badly. He sighed and stared at the sky, instead.

He may have zoned out a little. He only came back down to earth when he sensed someone else, close - another guy, wavy dark hair, scruffy, had walked up, holding two coffees. Pretty-but-rude next to him grinned and reached for the coffee greedily. Arthur knew the feeling. And _dang_ , he was cute, that smile – eyes crinkling. And then - _hm_. Pretty-but-rude and Scruffy-with-coffee weren’t talking, or they were, just not how Arthur expected. Sign language. _Shit_. Scruffy-with-coffee caught him looking and quirked his eyebrows. “What?” he voiced it and signed it, and Arthur was under the distinct impression that he wasn’t the Deaf one - Pretty-but-rude was. And possibly wasn’t rude at all.

“Nothing, I just - “ This was too awkward. Too early and too awkward. “I guess I wasn’t using the right language when I tried to make conversation.”

Scruffy-with-coffee laughed. “You tried to talk to him?” He was still signing, too, glancing between Arthur and Pretty-and-not-rude - signing what Arthur said, too. Arthur had never seen much sign up close, and he was impressed with the speed of it all, under the crushing embarrassment that made him want to just melt into the sidewalk right there and then.

Arthur grimaced. “Yeah...”

“For how long?”

“Briefly. Twice.”

Pretty-and-not-rude watched the reply on Scruffy-with-coffee’s hand, and his face broke into a perfect mask of horror. He signed something, repeatedly, hand moving on his chest, eyes on Arthur.

“Sorry,” Scruffy-with-coffee translated. “Sorry sorry -” He laughed and signed something back to his friend, who ignored him and signed something else at Arthur. “Didn’t notice, half asleep - _So_ hungover,” Scruffy-with-coffee voiced.

Arthur laughed, immediately, and got a grin in return. That was nice. Good smile. “So-” Even as he spoke his eyes rolled off Scruffy-with-coffee and back to his friend, the one he was actually talking to. It seemed rude not to talk _to_ him, and he felt like he had heard that, somewhere, once upon a time. Plus, Pretty-and-not-rude was pretty, and Scruffy-with-coffee was not his type - he had 'Gwen' written all over him. “Why are you even here?”

Pretty-and-not-rude rolled his eyes and let out a soft huff of annoyance, signing fast in reply.

“First, Deaf people can enjoy music, too. Second, I didn’t want to be here but my friend is an asshole and made me hold his place in line - Hey!”

Arthur laughed again, at Scruffy-with-coffee’s indignation and Pretty-and-not-rude’s sense of humor. “That’s what I wanted to know - why you bothered to get up if you’re hungover.”

“I _know_ , but he said I owed him one - You did owe me one, you passed out on my couch and cockblocked me.” Scruffy didn’t voice his friend’s reply to that, but Arthur felt like he got the gist just from the expansively sarcastic eye roll. And they weren’t together. So... that was cool. 

And then, the line was moving - people shuffling forward. Pretty-and-not-rude looked at the crowd, his friend, and then at Arthur, giving him a half-smile – it looked unsure. It was totally endearing.

“I’m Arthur,” he said suddenly, sticking out his hand even as he was jostled from behind by the jam band nerds.

Pretty-and-not-rude signed something then took his hand and shook - his fingers were long and smooth and strong. Nice. “Merlin. M-e-r-l-i-n,” his friend said. “And I’m Gwaine, not that you two are even paying any attention to me.” 

The handshake lingered a second too long, both of them smiling a little too much at the awkwardness and the amusement and Gwaine interrupting and each other, and then they were at the door, and Merlin stepped back out of the crowd, one hand still clutching his coffee cup, the other signing something fast at Gwaine and then waving, at both of them, eyes locked on Arthur’s for just a second.

“He thinks you’re cute,” Gwaine said as they pressed into the store. “But if you take any of the records I’m looking for I swear I’ll tell him you’re a serial killer or something.”

 

Arthur finished before Gwaine, who was still combing through the used bins when Arthur paid and pushed back through the crush of people towards the exit. As soon as he got outside he took a deep breath of fresh air - record stores were a bit musty on their best days, but they were a lot worse when they were overcrowded with excited people on warm spring mornings. When he opened his eyes, Merlin was there, quite close, smiling. Arthur had to take another breath, and almost fumbled when Merlin held something out - a cup of coffee. Arthur took it, a tiny bit confused, and Merlin held something else up - his phone, open to the notepad app. <I hope you like coffee, you looked like you needed caffeine.>

“Ohhh, man, thank you.” He glanced at Merlin’s eyes, hoping he understood, and got a smile and a nod in reply. They stepped out of the way of passers-by and Arthur took a long glug of the coffee before turning back to his caffeine savior. “Um - can you read lips?”

Merlin made an easily recognizable ‘kinda’ gesture, along with a ‘ehhhh’ grimace. Arthur nodded. Okay. Then phone it was. He pulled out his own. <Thanks for the coffee, really. I hate mornings.>

Merlin grinned. <Me, too.> He looked back down at his phone, then held it out. It was a contact page - it already said 'Arthur.' Arthur raised his eyebrows – smooth. Merlin made a gesture - phone to phone. Right. They could send texts instead of just holding up their phones to each other. Just being pragmatic, don’t read anything into it or into him buying you coffee, either. Arthur typed in his number, and his surname for good measure, and handed it back. A second later his phone buzzed. <Hi!> He looked up at Merlin, who grinned and waved. 

He laughed, then saved the contact, handing it over for Merlin to put in his surname, too. That done, he texted back. <Hi>, and a waving emoji for good measure. Merlin laughed when he saw it, a soft chuckle that Arthur liked, a lot, immediately.

<Sorry about earlier,> the next text from Merlin began, <I was trying really hard not to look at you because you were so cute and I was so hungover and gross and couldn’t cope.>

<Not gross,> Arthur shot back immediately, <Super cute. Don’t worry about it.>

Their eyes met over their phones, and Merlin smiled, shaking his head a little. <I was texting my friend - “Help Gwaine made me stand in line at record store day and there’s a cute guy beside me and I just CAN’T RIGHT NOW”>

Arthur laughed, hard. It was partially relief, because he was smitten, ridiculously so already, and apparently Merlin really was into him, too. Cool. Merlin grinned at him, laughing softly, too, then shifted his gaze - Gwaine was coming out the door of the store. Merlin waved and Gwaine waved back, signed something. Merlin typed something and Arthur’s phone buzzed. <Text me? Since you have my number.> And a winky emoji. So corny.

Arthur looked up at him and smiled, nodded.

<Soon.>

Arthur laughed. <OK.>

Merlin laughed too and waved. Arthur waved back and waited until the other two men were halfway down the block before he hit send on another message. <Too soon?>

Merlin paused, pulled out his phone, and laughed loud enough for Arthur to hear it down the street. Merlin turned around and shot him a grin and a shake of the head, amusement and answer in one gesture.

 

They went on their first real date, phones in tow, the next night.

**Author's Note:**

> Readers who encountered this fic before September 2015 may notice a slight change.  
> (I may have written about Lancelot when I meant to write about Gwaine. And it may have taken me five months to realize my mistake. I may have cussed colorfully when the realization of this struck me one evening.)  
> It's very embarrassing. Let us never speak of it again.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Cover for On this Morning, Quite Distracted](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3926116) by [tracionn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tracionn/pseuds/tracionn)




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